Canterbury Student Army volunteers pitched in to help. Photo: SUPPLIED/LDR
A West Coast community group has joined forces with the Department of Conservation (DOC) to reopen a historic tramway and restore one of the region's best-loved day walks, connecting Hector and Seddonville.
The southern half of the popular Charming Creek Walkway, about 45km north of Westport, has been closed by multiple slips since 2019.
DOC's regional director Owen Kilgour told the West Coast (Tai Poutini) Conservation Board this month that the route could never reopen.
It was a tough call to make, but there were now 19 slips on the track, and it could not be made safe, he said.
"It's a damn shame -- but the community has picked the ball up.
"They've got volunteers keen to open up the old tramway route that runs through to Hector and we are working with that group on a community agreement."
Community Action Northern Buller (CANB) co-ordinator Jo Douglas, told Local Democracy Reporting that local people mourning their favourite walk had been hunting around for an alternative route for some time.
"Some of them had been tramping around looking for options since 2019 when the track first closed.
"DOC did try to reopen it, but a digger got buried in a slip -- it's still there.
"It's really dangerous, some people still walk there even though it's closed, and it looks benign but it's not.
"Even 50 metres from the entrance there are trees hanging over the track, and a massive slump just waiting to come down."
About 40 years ago, when she was a possum hunter, Ms Douglas heard about another old track up to the old Watsons mill site, that came down onto the northern half of the track, just after the swing bridge.
"It's a tramway, used to haul timber - at least a hundred years old. A few people knew about, but all the access points were on private land, and previous owners didn't want people tracking over their property."
But new owners Heather and Lewis Holland had supported the idea of restoring the old tramway, and an online survey by CANB had drawn an enthusiastic response, not just from locals but people in Christchurch and Nelson who were keen to help and had joined up as members.
Landowner Heather Holland directs the first working bee on new track. Photo: SUPPLIED/LDR
DOC had agreed it was feasible to reopen the tramway but was concerned to protect some parts of it, Ms Douglas said.
"Quite a lot of it is still intact.
"Bridges and tunnels have fallen but we can divert around them. The biggest problem will be that it goes through an ecological zone country with rare trees like yellow pine, that has a really high form of protection."
For that reason and to preserve heritage, the new southern half of the track would have to be for trampers only, not cyclists, she said.
The access route was steep in places, and the tramway had a steady incline, climbing to 200 metres above sea level, staying above the risk of landslides.
The group had begun cutting the new track through the private land access and had invited search and rescue workers to inspect it, Ms Douglas said.
"We're mostly retired people, so there's plenty of opportunity for us to cark it one way or other or come to grief so we needed to know if we can be rescued," she joked.
"But I can get up there with sticks, on my bad knees - so it's no problem for younger fit people."
LandSAR confirmed the track was wide enough for a wheelie stretcher, but they would have to rope and belay a patient in some places, Ms Douglas said.
LandSar volunteers check out the route for stretcher ops. Photo: SUPPLIED/LDR
DOC had no money for new tracks and had costed the new 4 kilometre route at $40,000.
The volunteers would be saving DOC that cost but would still need to raise about half that amount for predator control and Good Nature traps, as part of their agreement with DOC, Ms Douglas said.
Since May the volunteers had put in nearly 900 hours of work and if all went as planned, the route from Hector to Seddonville should be open again by the end of next year, she said.
"We do want to celebrate the history of the place, the early pioneers, the Watsons, but also want to write about our experience of doing it because it is a journey in itself and will also be history in another 20 years."
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
